Victory at the House of Dawn!

Well, I had no intention of bubbling this tournament for a third time, come hell or high water, and though the water high and hell nearby, I chopped 1st prize two ways with the hostess herself. A run-down of some of the highlights -

First off, no double rebuy to start, so all of us were stuck with 3K chips to start. The first three levels were uber-boring for me, chipping up once or twice with a PF raise and a CBet here and there, but nothing overly fancy or strange. Right before the rebuy period was over I risked all my chips with 66 and they held up, doubling me up heading into freezeout time.

Most of my tussles came against Mary tonight, and due to some antics by others she got rather angry, and I do not blame her. Basically folks, don't talk when you're not in the hand. Even if you think you have the best piece of advice in the history of the world to give, don't do it. We're now 5 handed I have about 8BB and my shoved KQ runs into Mary's AJ.King hits. So that tilts her a bit. She is now in shove mode as well and goes all in. I have an ace, action is to me and only me, and I say" Ouch...I have an ace." Someone still around says, "Oh, that's a definite call here." This tilts Mary completely. Now I know I should call, this is not news to me, but still, it's impolite and unprofessional and rude. I call, but Mary's hand holds up, and though she was plenty pissed off, play continued.

We lost one more, and blinds were getting steep. Dawn was the big stack, and the rest of us were varying levels of short. A lot of button-raising fold-fold had been happening - so it was only a matter of time before someone got caught. Mary limps her Sb into my BB and I check 56. The flop comes K56. I had been shoving a lot, so I was at a point where I felt if she was merely limping to trap me post-flop, re shoving her with two pair is going to be as good of a spot as any. Action is to her and she shoves, and I snap call. Two pair holds, and Mary is sent to the rail. I felt bad, although I know I shouldn't because it's poker, but I never like to see people I play with mad or angry, and doubly so if I'm involved in the hand in question. Granted, I did nothing wrong, but I still felt bad about it.

It was not long before the shortest stack busted, and Dawn and I stood fairly even, so we happily chopped $190 each. Nothing like a night where luck goes your way AND you feel great about how you played. Thanks always to Dawn for hosting!

AC Trip - HoP and Edgie

So, yesterday Jordan and I ventured down to AC for the day trip. While the actual poker involved was an exercise in mediocrity, I enjoyed the other aspects of the trip, so I look forward to the next chance to team up with HoP for a trip down.

We used my ZipCar account - Jordan had yet to experience the pleasures of ZipCar, and also the heavenly franchise known as WaWa ( an AC mainstay stop for me), so indoctrinated to both, we made our way to the Jersey coastline.

Searching for tourney action, we made a decision to sign up for the Borgata Wednesday 15K, but when we got there at about 10:55, the line for the tournament was all the way out in front of Wolfgang Puck, so with only a day trip and in looking like a deep run would equal a 6 hr tournament, we headed back to the Showboat to play some cash and wait for the 2pm tournament.

Upon arriving...who else would we spot but Dawn Summers and Mary! In turns out the 50 hr+ Showboat freeroll was that day, and both of those degenerates were in attendance. Room for J and I at a 1/2 opened up quickly, and we bid them good luck in the freeroll upstairs.

The 2 1/2 hours I played prior to the tournament were probably some of the most boring hands of poker ever. For the record, I never saw a hand higher than KK the whole trip(once, in the tournament - more on that later), and for the most part ran extremely card dead. I basically fluctuated between 160-225 the whole session, playing players rather than the cards(of which I had none). Jordan was not so lucky the first session - if he wasn't being sucked out on, this guy who reminded me of what the neighbor in Everybody Loves Raymond might have looked like if we ever saw the rest of his face, was slamming the deck with cards, and Jordan was victim more than once. I'll let him report his hands - on to the tournament.

Again - so card dead I couldn't even begin to express it. For the first four levels I did not play a single hand other than the SB or BB, except I think I limped in once with 55(I was dealt 12 small to mid pocket pairs the whole day in cash/tourney, none of which hit the board - I did win with a few, though). In Level 5, with blinds hurtling hiigher to 400/800, I find KK with a little about 13BB. I raise to 2000, and a rather loose player raises to 6000. We've all been here before. Reraise on the Kings...I have to think that as tight as I was playing, no one would raise me with anything but the nuts, but he had about 10K more behind, so I felt AK, even he case KK or QQ as a possibilty, so I shipped it in, saw the aces, and they held up. I left the table having felt the KK to AA sting before, and tried to wash it from my brain as I sat down for more cash.

I arrive at a table with Mary and Jordan seeing that Jordan had recovered and was up about 100. I put the 185 in chips I had from before in my pocket and went to work. this table was a bit more crafty, and while I played some good poker in some spots, two in particular left me wishing I could have stayed longer to win my money back:

The first one was against a COM (Crotchedy Old Man) who had been pushing the table around a bit. Jordan and I disagree about the course of this hand, but I'll do my version. I limp with three other limpers with 10Qos. The flop comes JQK rainbow. I bet 15 and get a COM call. The turn comes a 10 and I get two pair, I bet 22 and COM makes it 50. A 9 or an A crush me, and I felt like an ace was possible, so, after considering I decided there were better spots, I folded showing my 10Q. He flips over 2s7s! Geez! Jordan thought there was a flush draw, which I didn't think was the case as I know there were three red cards and I had the Qs, but who knows really - I still was ahead there and felt bamboozled!

I was up and down, hitting 250 in the session when I suffer a beat due to a bad call on my part when LAAL (Loose African-American Lwyer), who had been splashing a lot of chips limps in and I make it 15 after he and 4 others limp. I get action from COM and LAAL. The lop comes K-10-blank, and LAAL checks. I make a standard C-bet for 20 and get a call., COM folds. The turn is yet another brick, and decide that I might just give up here, so when LAAL checks, so do I. the river is another uninteresting card, and LAAL bets out 50. 50? In looking back I'm realizing that I've let my JJ lose value against a K-rag, but it's a bit difficult to put LAAL on that specific line, as its a weak trap and as loose as he was I figured he would not have limped QQ-AA. AK could have been in his limp range, so could K10. However, there was a club draw on the board and put him on some sort of draw. I don't do enough analysis on this guy's range on the spot, and make the call. He tables K6. I'm down to 160 and stay pretty much there for the remaining hour. The room was running a buffet for free if you play for 2hrs deal, so J and I hit that before we headed back around 730.

So, the trip left me down about $125. Disappointing, and an odd day of poker, but I had a good time with Jordan and perhaps we will invade PA in the future instead. Off to redeem myself at the home of Dawn Summers on Saturday!

So, with tourne

I know the Meister reads this so...

...first off, how do you get that cool 'My blog List' widget that shows the last time everyone posted? I need to get me one of those.

Also, after some thought, I've decided that with this potential broke-ass challenge looming, I am going to mix it about an hour of $5 NL play into my online grind schedule, probably 4-6 tabling. My success so far this evening....





So, though a little rusty, I think I am doing ok with this small sample. Once I get to about 2000 hands or so I might start looking for leaks, but I just wanted the world to know I am trying!

Still a SNG grinder at heart.

NYC dead for live poker, so online I go...

It's true, the days of online poker in NYC seem to be dwindling...lots of games have shit down, and to be honest after hearing about how Scotty's game ended and the terrible story CK told me the other week, I truly doubt I'd even consider going to a live game in the city again unless I was very, very chummy with the clientele (like Dawn's game, for example - and yes Dawn, I know I owe you $20...I'll pay you at your next tournament in real dollars).

So it is online I go....and things are pretty good there...I'm rebuilding a bankroll at FT(currently $450 - I was at 2200 and had to cash out some life expenses) and at Stars($125), and am participating in the Pokercast League over at 2+2. I'm currently 20th out of some 200 folks...the big draw here is that every winner of the 24 events, the top 3 MVP's, and the top 20 at the end of 24 events get a freeroll into a Poker Stars-sponsored NAPT LA freeroll. Not to mention, money prizes for the Top 20 and MVP, along with whatever you cash in each tournament. Although I've had deep runs to help, my best performance, I feel, was a 14th place non-cash in 8-game, out of 92 runners. Considering I am a weak Stud player and am only just starting to learn the nuances of triple and single draw lowball, I was running really really well until I ran into trip aces against my trip kings in a PLO orbit close to the bubble. Not to mention, I really enjoyed some of the games! the variety is really appealing, and it's a shame that this kind of thing isn't spread live more often. Anyway, I am really enjoying the League, and if you are jonesing for some League action, you can still hop on and try your luck at an NAPT ticket, although you might be out of luck in the rankings by now.